Artist description A cool blend of Hip-Hop, Rock & Funk !

Music Style Rock Hop

Musical Influences Jimi Hendrix, Parliment Funkadelic, Jimmy Page, Snoop Dogg

Similar Artists Snoop Dogg, Dr Dre, Parliment, George Clinton, Jimi Hendrix

Artist History Singer, Songwriter, Guitarist. Born Michael Hunter on December 21st in Cincinnati, Ohio, the second child of two brothers and two sisters, Michael was raised by his parents Richard and Lorene Verdell, one of the first African-American couple in the predominantly white, small suburban city on the outskirts of Cincinnati called Silverton. As a young child he got his first musical instrument, a plastic toy guitar, as a birthday gift at age 3 that he soon taught himself to play. He got his first real instrument at age 5, an old broken player piano that he soon learned to play as well. At school by age 6, he was imitating James Brown dance moves at local talent shows and playing piano recitals for schoolmates. In Junior High School he began playing bass guitar and was further encouraged when his Dad took him to meet a friend, bass legend Bootsy Collins. Upon graduating High School, Michael took a job as a Mail Room Clerk during the day while playing gigs with his band, The Vast Corporation, at local dance clubs, bars, outdoor parties, and park concerts at night. The group decided to move to California and changed their name to “Life” and soon began playing in Los Angeles. Being an all black rock band, they garnered record companies’ attention but some group members started moving back home, or pursuing other interest, so they parted ways. Michael stayed in Los Angeles, taking a job as a Courier by day, while continuing to play bass or guitar in original groups at night (Vienna, Zero-X, Heartbeats). He started a group with Solomon Burke Jr. “JR” called “Now Hear This” and began recording at A&M Records with Producer/Engineer Chad Muncy. While recording there, he became interested in the production side of music. When the group disbanded, Michael took a job as a Runner at another recording studio in Hollywood to learn more about production. While working there, he also began to offer his services as a guitarist on his off hours and also continued writing and recording new songs on studio downtime. There he met the likes of Christina Aguilera, Enrique Iglesias, Hanson, Nancy Wilson, and Snoop Dogg. When asked, he would always offer his services as a guitarist to artists, producers, and engineers recording at the studio. One night on a session break, while Michael was playing an acoustic original, Snoop Dogg overheard his playing and singing style and quickly dubbed him Scoonie. Why? Because Michael reminded him of a scratchier “Hootie” (Darius Rucker from Hootie and the Blowfish). The nickname stuck at the studio and Scoonie continued to play on more sessions while continuing to write and record his own new songs. During a session for rapper Won G he met Ian Boxill. Ian has engineered platinum records for Tupac Shakur and is also producing songs for Hollywood records. Scoonie got a break when Ian offered to mix and produce a new song for him. Al Machera, who has worked for producer Herbie “Luv Bug” Azor on records for Salt -n- Pepa, also offered to help Scoonie program a beat and then engineered, and mixed the song for him. Tim Nitz, who has produced, engineered, and mixed songs for Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit, Bone- Thugs- In Harmony, Bad Azz, and Run DMC, also offered to produce and mix a song for Scoonie. When Snoop Dogg and the Eastsidaz began recording their record at the studio, he met Dave Aron, one of Snoop Doggs main engineers. Dave asked Scoonie to join his side project, a Rock band called Godwheel, and he joined. Dave in turn helped Scoonie with his solo recordings. One night on a Godwheel gig he met Tracey Brown, one of Snoop Doggs main mixers, who produced, mixed, and played guitar on a Scoonie song called “Dysfunctional” from the EP. In November 2002, Scoonie, anxious to get back to playing live and armed with an impressive list of top produced songs, decided to put a new band together and play the songs recorded in the studio. The group has been playing nonstop since then while also continuing to record more material. Current band members include DJ Slice on Turntables, Stephanie Menner on Keyboards, and Jordan Harrison on Drums.

Group Members DJ Slice-Turntables, Stephanie Menner-Keyboards, Jordan Harrison-Drums

Instruments Guitars, Basses, Vocals, Drums, etc...

Albums Scoonie

Press Reviews Blown Away by the shear force of the Bangin Bass and crunchy guitars mixed together! Scott Hamilton- Guitar Center

Location Los Angeles, Ca. - USA

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